Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Article conveyance device
The present invention relates to an article conveying
device which is capable of maintaining a constant spacing
or distance between a front article and a rear or
subsequent article, when conveying a great number of such
articles, as for example, box-shaped articles.
In one arrangement for packing a number of articles
into a bin, a conveyor carries the articles to a delivery
point. At the delivery point a pushing device, pushes the
articles into an accumulation area. The pushing device
pushes the articles, for example, ideally two at a time
into the accumulation area along a path which is
perpendicular to the path of the conveyor. A second
pushing device then moves the accumulated articles into
the bin. It can be seen that if the articles are not
evenly spaced on the conveyor, the pushing device may not
push the same number of articles into the accumulation
area on each of its cycles. As a result, it is difficult
to insure that an automated system would place exactly the
same number of articles in each bin.
The present invention is aimed at solving this problem
by maintaining a prescribed distance between articles when
a large number of articles are being conveyed.
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In another embodiment the pusher moves the articles
onto a second conveyor which operates at the same speed as
the pusher. As a result, the pusher is not overstressed
and the articles are not damaged by being repeatedly moved
forward by the pusher.
In accordance with an apsect of the invention there
is provided a conveyor system for moving and accumulating
articles comprising a first conveyor; a pusher for moving
said articles off said first conveyor in a direction
perpendicular to the direction of motion of said first
conveyor; a second conveyor moving in a direction
perpendicular to that of said first conveyor, said
second conveyor being comprised of a plurality of rollers
rotatably connected at their respective ends to left and
right chains, the speed of motion of said first conveyor
adapted to be equal to the speed of motion of said pusher.
In drawings which illustrate embodiments of the
invention:
Fig. l is a schematic plan view of an entire apparatus;
Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are schematic plan views of a portion
of the invention showing various actuated states in
sequence;
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Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 are schematic plan views of the
entire apparatus showing various actuated states in
sequence;
Fig. 9 is a plan view of another embodiment of the
invention;
Fig. 10 is a partial side view of this embodiment;
Fig. 11 is a partial sectional vie~ of a portion of
the embodiment shown in Figs. 9 and 10; and
Fig. 12 is a partial side view of a portion of the
device shown in Fig. 10.
With reference to Fig. 1, a constant speed conveyor 1
is provided, moving in the direction of the bold arrow. A
plurality of vertically oriented belts 2 are located along
both sides of conveyor 1. These belts 2 are designed
either to travel at a constant speed, the speed of the
conveyor or to travel at a lower speed compared with the
speed of travel of the conveyor 1.
As is shown in Fig. 2 the vertical belts 2 travel at a
lower speed than conveyor 1 and decelerate the articles
A4, A5, etc. compared with their speed on conveyor 1. The
articles then accelerate back to the speed of the conveyor
1 once they leave belts 2. As a result, a constant
distance ~ is maintained between articles leaving the
belts 2. Fig. 2 shows this distance a between articles
Al, A2 and A3 which have left the belts 2.
The articles then advance along conveyor 1 maintaining
the spacing ~ until the articles reach a stopper 3 which
is located downstream of the belts 2 and across the moving
path of the conveyor 1. This is shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 3
shows both articles A1 and A2 bunched together by stopper
3.
At this time, a pusher 4 located at one side of
conveyor 1 and directly adjacent stopper 3 is actuated and
moves articles Al and A2 in the direction of the right
most arrow shown in Fig. 3. This action moves articles A1
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and A2 onto the conveyor 5 shown in Fig. 4. When pusher
is located as is shown in Fig. 4, conveyor 1 continues to
move as does article A3. However, impeding plate 4a
located on pusher 4 intercepts and stops the movement of
S article A3. When pusher 4 retracts to its rest position
as shown in Fig. 3, article A3 advances down conveyor 1
and is finally stopped by stopper 3.
When article A4, which follows article A3 advances to
touch article A3, pusher 4 is activated, once again, and
moves articles A3 and A4 onto conveyor 5.
In the embodiment shown, additional vertical belts 2'
are provided on either side of conveyor 1 directly
downstream of belts 2. Belts 2' travel at exactly the
same speed as conveyor 1 and assist in accelerating the
articles back to the speed of movement of conveyor 1.
Belts 2' insure that the articles accelerate back to
the speed of conveyor 1 without tumbling or otherwise
moving out of alignment on the conveyor.
In view of the constant separation between articles
leaving belts 2, undue pressure is eliminated from pusher
4 and particularly impeding plate 4a. Furthermore, a
constant flow rate of articles and therefore the smooth
operation of pusher 4 is maintained.
In order to maintain a constant distance between
articles it may be a thought to momentarily stop belts 2
altogether. However, this limits the working efficiency
of the conveyor. ~s a result, the present system operates
the belts at a constant speed below that of the conveyor 1
with no momentary stops.
3~ Following the repeated operation of the pusher 4, the
prescribed number of articles, specifically 6 in Fig. 7,
are accumulated on conveyor 5 by means of stopper 5'. The
6 articles are then pushed into bin 7 by pusher 10 which
moves in the direction of its arrow as shown in Fig. 7.
The filled bin 7 then travels along rail 8 which runs
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parallel to conveyor 5. When each bin reaches a location
in front of pusher 9, the articles are removed from the
bin by the pusher thereby providing an accumulated and
ordered group of articles. Such a sequence is shown in
Fig. 8. Fi~. 1 shows a tandem arrangement of conveyors
working with a single, centrally located pusher 9.
The second embodiment of the invention will be
described with reference to Figures 9 through 12.
In order to insert a large number of box-like articles
A into a single bin, it is frequently found that a large
number o such articles can be conveyed by a conveyor 1
and subsequently pushed off the conveyor by a pusher
moving in a direction perpendicular to the direction of
motion of the conveyor. In this way, articles are
accumulated and then moved into a bin 7 by another pusher
10 (see Figure 1).
In the prior art, the pusher 4 moved the articles onto
a fixed bed plate. Since the bed plate was fixed the
pusher 4 had to push the articles many times before enough
of them were located in front of the bin 7 for movement
into bin 7 by pusher 10. This, of course, is due to the
fact that the articles immediately stop their movement on
the bed plate, at the end of travel of pusher 4 by virtue
of the frictional forces exerted on each article by the
bed plate.
The second embodiment of the present invention
overcomes the need for the repeated pushing and therefore
possible damage of the articles by the pusher 4 by
replacing the bed plate with a second conveying device 5
which moves at a speed which is e~ual to the speed of the
pusher at the end of travel.
The conveyor 5 is aligned with the pusher 4 and
perpendicular to the conveyor 1. The conveyor 5 is
comprised of a plurality o~ rollers 6 which are connected
to a pair of chains 15.
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As shown in Fig. 9, the articles are conveyed in the
direction shown by the arrow. The conveyor 1 moves the
articles to a stopper 3 which is located across the path
of the conveyor 1. A pusher 4 moves those articles
stopped by stopper 3 off the moving conveyor 1 in a
direction perpendicular to conveyor 1. The articles are
pushed onto conveyor 5.
Conveyor 5 is adapted to travel in the direction of
the arrow shown in Fig. 12. Conveyor 5 travels at a speed
which is identical to the speed of the pusher 4 when the
pusher is near the end of its travel. As a result, the
articles are smoothly transferred onto conveyor 5 and
travel in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 12.
This smooth transfer of the articles avoids the possibility
lS of the articles tipping over.
As is shown in Fig. 9, the conveyor 5 consists of a
plurality of rollers 6 rotatably fixed at opposite ends to
a left hand and a right hand chain 15. Fig. 11 shows the
connection of the chain 15 to the roller 6. A pin 17 is
fixed to the chain lS and is located within a bearing 18
which is mounted in the end of roller 6. A stopper 5'
stops articles A in front of the bin 7. Pusher 10 then
pushes the appropriate number of articles into the bin 7.
Very little frictional force is given to the articles A
~5 when stopped by stopper 5' because the rollers 6 not only
move horizontally but also rotate about their longitudinal
axis. Figure 12 shows the rotation of the rollers 6 which
are directly under those articles stopped by the stopper
5'.
Figure 10 shows a fixed guide 20. This guide is
located just under each chain 15 and defines the horizontal
plane in which the working surface of the conveyor 5
moves. It should be noted that the conveyor 5 can be a
continuous loop type conveyor.
